The perils of being the Bandra Bugga

A viral video doing the rounds on Social Media where José talks about the “regular” Bandra bugga – has, believe it or not, created a small misunderstanding between Bandraites and the rest of the world. If you haven’t seen it, here’s the link to it.

When I first saw it, I found it so hilarious, but then I realised that many folks tend to stereotype us guys from Bandra according to what is said in the video. For instance, folks from my office call me bugga – no idea why, is it just because we are from Bandra? Seriously, I need to know!! So herein this post, I want to point out a few of the commonly heard misinterpretations, bust these myths and set the record straight.

Thinking you want to hang out only in Bandra, and that you never want to step out elsewhere

With my college group, whenever we meet up most of the times it’s in Bandra, and while I think there are tons to do in Bandra, I’m definitely open to hanging out at some fabulous places around the city, such as Palladium or Phoenix. What I’ve noticed over time is that most people automatically assume that if you stay in Bandra, chances are that you never want to move out. That’s exactly what my friends think, and I could not disagree more– I love to head out, it’s so much better – you get to discover some really rad places in other parts of town (such as the zoo, or a completely veg. New Yorker restaurant or M. A. Road)

The invisible line that divides Bandra is actually yellow in color 🙂

If you stay in Bandra you’re automatically rich and awesome

Ok, this is where I really need to burst your bubble. I mean think about it, rent in Bandra is too high, and we can’t even think of going to different places to eat since we earn peanuts at work, and the cost of even regular Tea is around Rs 100/- in some upper class places. Seriously?? Who pays Rs 100/- for tea, when you can buy it outside a pan shop for 5 bucks! Restaurants hike up their rates, just because they are located in Bandurah. And let’s not forget the clothing shops too, guys! The dentist, doctor, moochi, and even the local vadapav fellow hikes up their prices, only because they line in the Queen of the Suburbs. Thank God rickshaws and service taxes are governed by the government, else we would have been paying 12.5% service tax to the autorickshaw guy too!

Just because we in Bandra, doesn’t mean we have them money makers (no puns intended)

There are 150 new restaurants around, you must have been to at least 149 of them

We all know that Bandra has a ton of restaurants in every nook and corner (in some cases, forget the corners, they’re just located on the roadside). But one of my pet peeves, is when everyone automatically assumes that you’ve visited at least 95% of them. “Dude, how’s TAP and Red Ant – which would you recommend is better? I heard Tea Villa is a great place, what’s your take on it? How much does Hawaiian Shack charge for entry?” First of all, if I had that creative and exciting a social life, I wouldn’t’ have been spending Saturday night blogging. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the regular Andheri chap living in Lokhandwala has visited more restaurants that me in Bandra. I dislike going out to eat – would rather spend the money on something more worthwhile. With that in mind, if you want to see the crème de la crème of Bandra, stand outside the restaurants on Carters and ogle.

The cheese drips… oh yea… so totally fattening

You see many celebrities like Salman and Shahrukh or Sachin

Well… its not like they stop their car outside my house and shout out to see if I’m home! I’ve seen a quite a few VJ’s, actors and actresses, though I only came to know they were famous AFTER people told me – Dude, do you know who that was? I don’t care who it were, I’m more interested in why no one wants to wave to good ol’ Alvi (I could be a potential future celebrity, you know). Oh well, to each his own! So the next time you have the urge to ask a Bandraite whether s/he has seen celebrities around, remember that just because we stay in Bandra, doesn’t mean we see actors buying onions and tomatoes at the local bhajiwalli (not often, at least)!

Both the Khans together!

There are tons of girls that come here to hang out

Ok, I agree – though I doubt many know we exist, they’re usually sampling cuisines (or fat free yogurt) at restaurants on Carters; some come to take in the fresh air (and others come to make out on Bandstand). However, for the regular Bandra chap, it doesn’t really matter to use, though that’s mainly a function of being invisible in this respect!

Girls in Bandra always have that Oomph factor going for them!

Finally, if you’re Goan from Bandra means that you play football, play the guitar, and plan to head off to the Portuguese sunset one day. No no, we might play football, love Goan sausages, strum a few chords and love Cristiano, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to skip town any time soon – the visa takes too long, and requires too many papers from Goa (which off course is susegad). In the meantime, we’ll make do with what Bandra has to offer – green artificial turfs that cost too much to play on, neighbours that complain about the ‘racket’ the guitar makes, especially during the afternoon (irrespective of how great they said it sounded yesterday evening).Thank God, for the Goan sausages at lease!

Ahhh – the delicious Goan sausages. Making Sundays great again…

So there you have it, while everyone thinks that living in Bandra is perfect, we have our share of difficulties to conquer too. However, that doesn’t mean I’m planning of switching over to another suburb any time soon!